Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

See the Conversations with History Blog See a webcast of this interview: Ferguson See also the 2003 interview with Niall Ferguson: "Money and Power"

This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.

Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is Niall Ferguson, who is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution. His new book is The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and the Descent of the West.

1. The Roots of Ethnic Conflict ... thoughts on writing history for TV or books ... conflict as backlash to assimilation ... no need for Martians ... twentieth-century violence
2. Mass Migrations and Social Dislocation ... unprecedented global mobility ... intermarriage ... minorities as social elites
3. Empire Breakdown and Economic Volatility ... ethnic tolerance of old empires ... the multiple roles of the railway ... destabilized economies
4. New Kind of Empire ... 20th century empire states ... new intolerance and systematic violence ... industrialized genocide ... highly educated perpetrators ... racial theory
5. Insights for Contemporary Policies ... Neville Chamberalin's mistake ... "bring it on" ... overstretch ... the middle east ... democracies at war ... the myth of "Islamofascism" ... comparing bin Laden and Lenin
6. Thoughts on the Econony ... the role of China in American debt ... empire debt ... "axis of allies" ... the decline of empires

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